"Lord! If I could get the mater to part—only a pony—I'd buy a satchel and start bookmaking in the half-crown ring myself. It's Tom Tiddler's ground if you've got a nut on you."
"Queer work for a 'Varsity man?"
"Deed sight better than bear-leading, or going usher in a school. Fun! Change! Fly about! What more do you want?"
"Do you like to hear the ring curse? Dick and Alf often make me goose-skinned."
"What matter, so you cop the ready?"
"Do you read now?"
"Not such a Juggins. I think my Oxford time was all wasted. Of course, I liked to hear Jowett palaver, and it was quiet and nice enough; but give me life. Bet all day; dinner at the Rainbow, Pav., or Trocadéro, and Globe to finish up. That's life!"
If anyone had chances this youth had them, and now his ambition is to bet half-crowns with the riddlings of Creation. This universe is getting to be a little too much for me. Come down, pipe; I shall go in the Chequers parlour to-night, and play the settled citizen.